1943 S Bronze cent story

[Brotherman]

Did anyone read (or has already posted) the story about the 1943 S bronze cents in Coinage? Apparently the mint hired part-time help from high schools as most men were fighting in the war. Sixteen year old Charles S, Reis, a local San Francisco resident, was one of the high school students to get the job back in 1943. The mint only let the high school kids work with nickels and pennies because they didn't trust them with higher valued coins. Mr. Reis told his son that one day while working at the mint he came across a "handful" of copper penny planchets. He didn't tell anyone what he had found and threw them in with a bunch of steel blanks that were being fed into the penny press. He claims to have pulled out six of them and took them home to give to his mother. His son, David Reis, recently told this story and was able to produce proof that his dad did indeed work at the San Francisco mint in 1943. The six pennies Charles Reis took home to his mother couldn't be found...

 

Interesting story, it may explain where these cents came from. If it is true I can't help but think that the mint was correct in not trusting high school kids with more valuable coins!

 

Hays

[EZ_E]

Interesting. I guess that they didn't make employees pass through metal detectors back then.

[Brotherman]

Interesting. I guess that they didn't make employees pass through metal detectors back then.

 

Did they even have metal detectors back then?

 

Hays

[pendragon1998]

I know they had some crude versions used in mines (the exploding kind, not the digging kind)

 

Cool story!

[MikeKing]

Brotherman, could you site the source of that story for us?

Thanks

Michael

[Brotherman]

Brotherman, could you site the source of that story for us?

Thanks

Michael

 

Sure Michael, it's a story in the June issue of COINage magazine - page 18 called "Copper in the Hopper".

 

Hays

[Morgannut]

Interesting. I guess that they didn't make employees pass through metal detectors back then.

 

Did they even have metal detectors back then?

 

Hays

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Yes, they were all being sent to North Africa to clear mine fields. They also had primative trailing large magnetic recorders used behind destroyers to detect subs later in the war.

[comicdonna]

I remember seeing an ad nearly 30 years ago, about how some copper pennies were made by mistake in 1943. I believe it said that 5 were found to date, and if you found one it was worth $10,000 I was just a kid, and I never forgot that.